If you’ve watched the Jets play this year, you don’t need me to tell you how talented Patrik Laine is. His shot is among the best that I’ve ever seen and his skating is explosive in its own right. The Jets top six was in a slump so Paul Maurice shuffled the lines on Tuesday. Granted, they play against the Stars, but the early returns were outstanding. Laine led the way scoring another hat trick on six shots while adding two penalty minutes. This puts him at 26 goals and 21 assists in 51 games, the second best goal rate in the league behind Sidney Crosby. I had him ranked in my top 100 going into the season but the days of getting him in that area of drafts is over. Hell, his days of going outside the first two rounds are over. The Jets are loaded with talent around him and Laine will only get better being 18 years old. Is he a first rounder next year? Right now, I’d lean towards no but he’s firmly in the second round and it could certainly change over the next six months when I put my rankings out for next season. Regardless, watch this kid when you get the chance because it’s remarkable. Here’s what else I saw around the league the last two nights:
Antti Raanta – 30 saves on 32 shots in the 3-2 win over Columbus. Raanta looked solid despite Monday being his first start in 12 games. He’s worth streaming every time out but it looks like Vigneault is going to ride The King right now.
Kevin Hayes – Goal and an assist with four shots. Seven game point streak for Hayes who is locked in right now. He can be a top 50 player if he gets his shot rate up.
Brandon Dubinsky – Goal on three shots. He’s playing his way towards a hold if you need penalty minutes with six points in his last four games. Use him depending on your team needs.
Taylor Hall – Assist with six shots. Honestly, this is what we expect from Hall against a team like Colorado. It hasn’t been as good as I expected on the whole but his numbers have been solid.
Pavel Zacha – Goal on two shots. I’m all for streaming Zacha right now as he starts to put things together. With the Devils closer to being out of it, hopefully Hynes is willing to give him some more minutes down the stretch.
Cory Schneider – 28 saves on 30 shots in the 3-2 win over the Avalanche. Anything else would have been disappointing. I don’t see much to do with him outside of rolling him and hoping for the best.
Matt Murray – 29 save shutout in the 4-0 win over the Canucks. I would rank Murray as the third best goalie for the rest of the season besides Dubnyk and Holtby. He’s been outstanding on the whole.
Jake Guentzel – Goal on five shots. He played almost 19 minutes with Crosby and now has 11 points in 18 games. The important thing is that the shot rate is up lately. Guentzel is a great streamer at the moment.
Kris Letang – Assist with four shots and two PIM. He hasn’t had the big game lately but the consistency is outstanding.
Evgeni Malkin – Goal and an assist with two shots in his return from injury. Nice to see Geno not miss a beat.
Robin Lehner – 39 saves on 41 shots in the 3-2 win over the Senators. Lehner just owns his former team. We talked about him on the podcast extensively but Lehner looks to be a bottom end #1 goalie next season; obviously keep rolling him for the rest of this season for the great save percentage.
Matt Moulson – Goal on four shots. He moved onto the top scoring line with Evander Kane missing the game due to the flu. If Kane misses Thursday, then Moulson is a great streamer. If Kane is back, Moulson is near useless.
Bobby Ryan – Goal and an assist with six shots. This was the best I’ve seen Ryan look in quite some time. That said, he’s a streamer at best right now because everything has fallen off.
Frederik Andersen – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 7-1 win over the Islanders. It’s been very up and down lately for Andersen and the Leafs in general. He clearly needs to be held but it’s a bit of a gamble.
Nazem Kadri – Goal and an assist with three shots and two PIM. Kadri provides an excellent five category line which puts him as a top 20 overall forward. It’s very similar to Wayne Simmonds without the fanfare.
Josh Leivo – Goal and two assists with five shots. He’s been a big scorer in the AHL and Babcock decided to use him on the first power play unit despite playing on the fourth line. In deep leagues, he’s a sneaky option for PPP in the short term.
Auston Matthews – Two goals on seven shots. Matthews vs. Laine is going to be an incredible debate for years to come.
William Nylander – Goal and an assist with three shots. The shot rate is really going up with at least three shots in each of the past five. He’s going to be fringe top 100 going into next season.
Jamie Benn – Goal and an assist with four shots. Finally, the heater we’ve been waiting for is here. Benn is rapidly approaching a point per game and should make a massive difference down the stretch. There’s #1 player upside for the rest of the season.
Tyler Seguin – Goal and an assist with four shots and two PIM. He was reunited with Benn at the end of this game and they were all over the Jets. Same story as Benn.
Mark Scheifele – Three assists. Moving onto a line with Laine did well for both of them. The shot rate is down quite a bit lately which is unfortunate but he’s back at a point per game on the season.
Connor Hellebuyck – 34 saves on 36 shots in the 5-2 win over the Stars. He’s been fine in these three starts since Ondrej Pavelec went down. I wouldn’t tempt fate though and play him on Thursday; at Pittsburgh is as bad as it gets outside of at Washington.
John Gibson – 37 save shutout in the 1-0 win over the Wild. The hot streak came to and end over the last week but he locked this game down. Look for the Ducks to ride him down the stretch.
Hampus Lindholm – Assist. This gives him at least a point in three straight. I’m okay with grabbing him for the upside but you can leave him on the wire as well.
Devan Dubnyk – 22 saves on 23 shots taking the loss. Despite being locked into the playoffs, I expect Boudreau to ride Dubnyk down the stretch. Home ice throughout the playoffs would be massive for the Wild.
Mike Smith – 36 save shutout in the 5-0 win over the Flames. He’s the ultimate wild card because of the shot volume he faces. The save percentage is solid but the goals against average is going to hurt you plenty.
Christian Dvorak – Two goals and an assist with three shots and two PIM on Monday; one shot on Tuesday. We’re starting to see flashes from Dvorak and when they inevitably move Martin Hanzal, he should get massive minutes down the stretch. I’m still a fan for dynasties.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Two assists with a shot and two PIM over two games. The assists are starting to come in, I just want to know where the hell the shots have gone. He was over three per game the past two seasons and now he’s under two per game. Absolutely bizarre.
Martin Hanzal – Two goals. We talked about him at length on Tuesday’s podcast.
Jordan Martinook – Goal and an assist with six shots. I don’t see much upside here but Martinook could settle in as a decent streamer eventually.
Luke Schenn – Two assists with six shots and two PIM. He moved onto the first pair making him useful in deep leagues for PIM, hits and blocks. The points are dreadful though.
Ryan White – Goal and an assist with two shots. And there’s your annual Ryan White update!
Leon Draisaitl – Goal and two assists with four shots. Moving onto the second line didn’t hurt him one bit. He was going through a rough stretch before this game but it should be strong going forward.
Oscar Klefbom – Goal and two assists with four shots and two PIM. The shots are great but everything else is bottom end, especially penalty minutes. These were his first two PIM of the year! Let team needs determine his value to your team.
Mark Letestu – Goal and an assist with two shots. He’s playing on the first power play unit but I don’t see much value here.
Connor McDavid – Two assists with two shots. Any time someone gets on his ass for the league lead in points, he puts up a multi-point game. That race should be spectacular down the stretch.
Wednesday’s Streamers:
Patrik Berglund (9.6%) – Berglund was another focal point on the last podcast. He has 16 goals in his last 26 games so he should be owned in 12’ers. The fact that Berglund is available in over 90% of leagues is insane. Use him tonight.
Kevin Labanc (0.8%) – More podcast guys! Labanc has three assists in the last two games; use him if he’s playing with the Joes again.
Troy Brouwer (8.1%) – He was one of the few Flames buzzing on Monday. Brouwer is still on the top line putting him in a nice spot against the up and down Flyers.
That’s all for now guys. My next set of daily notes will be up on Friday morning with a podcast going up Thursday morning. I will include streamers for Thursday in that podcast post. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. Thanks for reading, take care!
